Bhubaneswar: Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Kremer and his 12-member team from the University of Chicago visited Krushi Bhavan to discuss their ongoing research project on the weather forecast dissemination system and its rationality, validity, and acceptability among the farming community of the State.
A meeting was organised in the Krushi Bhavan conference hall in the presence of Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Department.
Prof. Kremer appreciated the Krushi Samrudhi Helpline (KSH) of the Department. He noted that the outreach of KSH is helping last-mile farmers in saving their crops from climate-related challenges.
He also suggested introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based forecasting, taking rainfall, temperature, and humidity into account, to better predict pest incidence. Such forecasting would help farmers adopt precautionary and preventive measures to protect crops from abnormal weather occurrences. He further emphasised that integrating multiple weather forecasting models with the existing KSH system of DA & FE is the need of the hour.
Padhee highlighted the Department’s holistic approaches, including Comprehensive Rice Fallow Management for enriching soil biomass, crop insurance, customised agro-advisories, digital crop surveys, farmer registry, the Krushak Odisha database, adoption of stress-tolerant crop varieties, and digital pest monitoring. He also mentioned the contingency plan prepared by the Department in collaboration with OUAT, which serves as a tool to mitigate the adverse consequences of weather aberrations in the State.
Prof. Kremer lauded the initiatives of the Department and wished for a meaningful partnership for mutual sharing of knowledge and expertise.
The meeting was attended by Shubham Saxena, Director of Agriculture and Food Production; Subrat Kumar Panda, Director of Soil Conservation and Watershed Development; the Additional Secretary; senior departmental officers; scientists from OUAT; and members of the Climate Resilience Cell (CRC).
